This time last year Nick Cushing’s Manchester City looked an unstoppable force. They were unbeaten in the league, in the final of the League Cup and in the semi-finals of the FA Cup and Champions League. Then their season fell apart.

From February they dropped points in nine of 16 games to stagger across the finish line, six points behind Chelsea in the league and beaten by Arsenal in the League Cup final, by the eventual champions, Lyon, in the Champions League and by Chelsea in the FA Cup to finish a season so full of promise empty-handed. It was a harsh lesson.

Now they head into a similarly critical period, again unbeaten in the league and again into the domestic semi-finals – though crashing out of the Champions League at the last-32 stage to the Spanish champions, Atlético Madrid.

This week they will twice play Chelsea, the team who beat them to silverware in the league and FA Cup and who have a squad depth the envy of their league opponents – first on Wednesday in the Continental Tyres Cup, then on Sunday in the WSL. The Manchester City and England captain, Steph Houghton, for one, believes City are better equipped to challenge for title this season.

“I think injuries did hamper us a bit [last season],” she says. “But our squad size is probably a little bit stronger now. I think Nick made it a priority to build a squad that could compete in all four competitions at the start of the season.

“We’ve shown different sides to our game and we’ve changed formations in games. We always want to play and be dominant with the ball but we respect the opposition. We’re not always going to have the ball but we’ve been physical when we haven’t got the ball and we’ve been really hard to break down. The season we won the league that was probably our main strength, our ability to prevent teams from scoring and putting ourselves under pressure.”

If anything, there is less pressure this season. Despite their form, City have been in the shadows of a swaggering Arsenal side who have scored 50 goals in 13 games. Though City lead the league by a point, Arsenal have played a game fewer.

Steph Houghton and the City team. Photograph: Paul Currie/BPI/Rex/Shutterstock

City are doing what they can to ensure their passage through this testing month. Sunday’s league tussle at City’s Academy Stadium at 1pm is followed by Manchester City’s men’s team playing Chelsea at the Etihad at 4pm. “It’s going to be a huge day for us,” Houghton says. “Both title races are tight. It’s a great opportunity for our fans to come and see both teams.

“Whenever we’ve played Chelsea we have always had unbelievable crowds but the fact the men are playing a few hours later can only encourage fans to come and watch. It’s a great incentive. Timing and the days on which we do things are crucial for the women’s game.”

It is not the first time City have held back-to-back games but it is the first against the same opposition and is a model the head of women’s football at the club, Gavin Makel, says they are keen to take beyond a one-off event.

“This year we made a bit of a concerted effort to see if this was something we could do,” Makel says. “It’s an interesting learning curve for everyone. I’m expecting a lot of takeaways from the game. If it does work well, we’ll review it, we’ll speak to the FA and see if this is something we might want to implement on a more consistent basis.”

With the Academy Stadium a stone’s throw from the Etihad, one would think City would find it easier than most to encourage fans to their women’s games but, despite fan survey’s suggesting double headers are wanted, Makel admits they “have not really seen the correlation. It is a challenge because fans have their own match traditions, rituals.”

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A big part is trying to get fans to buy into what is still a fledgling sport. “We’re 100 years behind the male equivalent and there’s a lot of roads we have to go down before we get close to catching up. Once you get the notion that it’s not as technical or as quick or as physical as the men’s game out of your head and focus on the sporting spectacle it is in its own right, then we’ll start to make headway.

“Tennis went on that evolutionary journey with Billie Jean King at its head. People now watch the Wimbledon women’s final just as much as the men’s and people enjoy the women’s in its own right. It’s its own game. We are aligning these fixtures but we also don’t necessarily want to follow the men’s game. Obviously there’s things we can take from it but, as a women’s sport and league, we need to look at ourselves and what works for us. If we can get 5% of what goes on over there to come over here next weekend, then that would be a fantastic achievement..”

There are a lot of operational logistics to take into consideration – “from security to staffing and stewarding. Both games being of interest to broadcasters,” Makel says – but their efforts to make it happen show that, where there is a will, there is a way.

Talking points

• Last year’s FA Cup finalists Chelsea and Arsenal have been drawn against each other in the fifth round of this season’s contest. Tottenham welcome the WSL title chasers Manchester City, while Manchester United host London Bees.

• The former Arsenal and Liverpool forward Asisat Oshoala has joined Barcelona on a six-month loan deal from the Chinese Women’s Super League side Dalian Quanjian.

• Athletic Bilbao’s midweek 2-0 defeat by Atlético Madrid became the highest ever attendance for a domestic European women’s game. A staggering 48,121 attended the Copa de la Reina quarter-final, eclipsing the highest turnout for the men’s team this season.

• Referees are undergoing VAR training for the Women’s World Cup, according to the Associated Press, following criticism of Fifa for not committing to the use of the system which was used at the men’s World Cup.